The Sunday Mail
The Zhuwao Brief is concerned about the goings on at Alpha Media Holdings. The departure of one Rita Chinyoka and a cursory glance at the quantum of advertising in the company’s stable of papers leads the Zhuwao Brief to speculate about the eminent demise of that institution. That would be a shame.
The Zhuwao Brief would be most unhappy should Alpha Media Holdings collapse. I have found that the articles that pass as journalistic content within that company’s stable provides at least two things. Firstly, they are a significant source of comic relief, and secondly, they reveal quite a bit about some of the pretenders who masquerade as ZANU PF stalwarts.
Our compatriots across the media street are given to penning such astounding works of fiction that one is left in stitches by what they pass off as pieces of journalistic work. In some cases, as one reads their work, one wonders if we live in the same country and whether we observe the same things. As if that confusion is not enough, one is often confronted by stories that have diametrically opposed content, messages and themes within the same paper during the course of the same week. Consequently, the Zhuwao Brief is not surprised by the departure of the person that passed off as the publisher of that institution.
The Zhuwao Institute has also used the products of our compatriots across the media street to conduct exercises in analysis by examining not only the writing styles in some of these pieces, but determine the identity of their so-called unnamed sources. It does not take a rocket scientist to establish the identity of some of the people that provide information to these scribes by conducting a robust examination of writing styles, slant, bias and other factors to establish the sheep in wolves’ clothing that feed the scribes. Yes, I mean sheep in wolves’ clothing, not the other way round. And yes, I mean feed the scribes.
The Zhuwao Brief’s concern about the possible collapse of Alpha Media Holdings is amplified by the fact that I like Trevor Ncube as a person. Although, I am almost certain that I do not subscribe to most of his politics, I admire what my totemic brother has been able to achieve despite his describing me as being caustic tongued. Kkkkkkkkkk. I suppose it takes one caustic tongue to recognize another.
I respect the little I know of the manner in which Trevor Ncube established the Zimbabwe Independent after he left the Financial Gazette. I secretly rejoiced when he took over the Mail and Guardian in South Africa. I was proud of him when he stood resolutely against afrophobia a few months back. He almost sounded as if he was a member of ZANU PF as he “expagorated” on being African. I was tempted to become a Mail and Guardian columnist at that point.
However, I tut tutted to myself when Trevor Ncube posted a picture of himself selling newspapers on a street corner and sought to popularise the hash tag #IamaVendor. No Trevor. You are not a vendor. You are a journalist. You are an entrepreneur. You are an innovator. You are an international businessman. You are ground-breaking. Do not sell yourself short.
I was further bemused when Trevor Ncube posted a picture of a Harare sunset that had a kaleidoscope of garbage in the foreground. My response to my totemic brother was to post a picture of a landscape in the Eastern Highlands. Harare mayor Ben Manyenyeni took Trevor’s bait and found himself engrossed in a robust debate online. As I chuckled at the online banter that Ben Manyenyeni had been drawn into, I could not help but conclude that Trevor Ncube was truly a monkey, a naughty and mischievous monkey for that matter. I suppose that it takes a monkey to know another monkey.
The news of Rita Chinyoka’s departure from Alpha Media Holdings this week has forced me to reflect deeply and seriously about some of my brother’s antics. I felt duty bound to make my own contribution towards the salvation of this Zimbabwean institution. Despite the fact that I may not agree with Alpha Media Holdings’ editorial policy and stance, the company employs people and provides sustenance and livelihoods for families.
The Zhuwao Brief acknowledges the efforts that were made a couple of weeks back by Alpha Media Holdings when they hosted some form of Zimbabwe investment conference in Rosebank, Johannesburg. But that effort needs to also be complimented by responsible behaviour, not only from a journalistic perspective, but from a national viewpoint.
The founder and owner of Alpha Media Holdings cannot become a poster boy for illegal vending that inhibits formal businesses from operating effectively. The majority of advertisers in his newspapers are these formal businesses whose operations are being hindered by illegal vendors. The promotion of the #IamaVendor hash tag by Trevor Ncube is akin to cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. Trevor my brother, don’t kill off the formal businesses that make up the bulk of your advertising revenue base. A publisher is not a vendor.
On the same note, journalists and editors at the so-called independent media need to re-evaluate the efficacy of constantly bashing Zimbabwe to a point where they discourage businesses from establishing, let alone expanding, their operations in this country. It is these businesses that will provide not only advertising, but also create more disposable incomes that could boost circulation figures. Our so-called independent media has developed a penchant for defecating in our communal drinking well and, true to the antics of a village idiot, running off laughing to later come back and drink from that same well.
The Zhuwao Brief wishes to appeal to the media to take note of how the financial services sector was caught napping as technology and social dynamics evolved to the point of rendering banking halls obsolete. Financial transactions are now largely conducted via mobile platforms leaving our financial institutions having to carry large overheads. The bank is now more about the technology platform as opposed to the brick and mortar that makes up the banking hall.
The media sector has been lucky that Government, under the leadership of the former information minister Professor Jonathan Moyo, undertook an official inquiry into the state of the information and media industry in Zimbabwe. The Zhuwao Brief has had a glimpse into the report of that inquiry and is convinced that the information and media industry could soar to great heights if media practitioners could only take their own recommendations seriously and implement them.
Whether you like him or not, Professor Moyo has provided some interesting and innovative interventions into the information and media industry. There have been great strides in the music industry despite the significant amount of derision that the local content policy received when it was introduced over a decade ago. The Professor does have a brain. Vane musoro. LOL or in vernacular KNK.
The Professor initiated the Information and Media Panel of Inquiry (IMPI) which has interrogated the media as a business, as well as looking at information platforms, media content, polarisation, perceptions and interference. Issues of human capital development, ethics, advocacy and conditions of service were dealt with in the inquiry. IMPI has also tackled matters around technology convergence, legislative reform and access to information.
Zimbabwe now has a blue print from which the media and information industry can grow in leaps and bounds. This blue print can only be realised if the players in the sector place their focus primarily on developing the industry. Media practitioners should desist from pursuing self-destructive and kamikaze searches for infantile and nonsensical headlines which they know to be false.
The Zhuwao Brief wishes to conclude by offering a word of advice to the media fraternity in Zimbabwe. Trevor Ncube is not a vendor. He is a publisher. Journalists are not political activists. Journalists are purveyors of knowledge. They provide information as a means to generate revenue through newspaper sales and advertising. It is folly for the media fraternity to engage in acts that undermine the media’s own capacity to generate revenue. Akuruma nzeve ndewako. Icho!
About the writer
Honourable Patrick Zhuwao is the Chairman of Zhuwao Institute which is an economics, development and research think tank that focus on integrating socio-political dimensions into business and economic decision making, particularly strategic planning. Zhuwao is the holder of a BSc honours degree in Computer Systems Engineering and an MBA degree in Information Technology Management (City University, London). He also holds BSc honours and MSc degrees in Economics (University of Zimbabwe), as well as a Master of Management (with distinction) degree in Public and Development Management (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg). Feedback to [email protected].
